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Thomas Estes was an American diplomat, most notable as the first US ambassador to Upper Volta, under the Kennedy administration.

Biography
Estes was born on January 23, 1913 in Rumford, Oxford County, Maine.

Early years in Worcester Massachusetts
At age 16 Tom left Maine, and his childhood sweetheart Ruth Fullerton, to live and work with his Aunt and Uncle Fanny & Joseph Coombs in Worcester Massachusetts. Uncle Joe was the owner of a interior decorating and furniture business. It was the depth of the depression and Tom was fortunate to have a job. While in Worcester he met Dorothy Milner who would later become his wife.

1934 Enlistment in the Marines & Peiping China
In 1934 Tom enlisted the U.S. Marines where he earned a sharp shooter medal. In 1936 Tom graduated the Marines Clerical School and in 1937 was assigned to the American Embassy in Peiping, China. In Peiping Tom was quoted to say "I may not have been the best typist in the Marine Corps, but I like to think I was one of the best ‘eraserists’."

1938 Foreign Service
In early 1938 Tom received an honorable discharge from the Marines to join the Foreign Service as a clerk and was assigned to the Legation in Bangkok Siam (now Thailand) under American Minister Herman Neville and Holbrook "Chappy" Chapman.

Bangkok & Marriage
In Bangkok Tom was promoted to Vice Consul and proposed marriage to Dorothy Milner back in Worcester - "Somewhat to my surprise, she accepted" said Tom. Tom and Dorothy were married December 13th 1938 in the Episcopal Church in Bangkok. Dorothy took on a job at the Legation as a Clerk, activity that she relished and was surprisingly good at this sometimes tedious job. 1939 saw the beginning of World War II and Tom and his family were not immune to this conflict.

1941 Held Prisoner in the Legation
In October of 1941 Tom took the Foreign Service exams but was not to know the results for almost a year due to the invasion of Thailand by the Japanese. By-Mid December Thailand was invaded by the Japanese Tom, his wife Dorothy and many other members of the Legation found that they would be interned in the Legation with Japanese soldiers guarding the gates for some time.

1942 Exchanged
July 3rd 1942 Tom, Dorothy and the Legation staff were finally to be exchanged and departed Thailand on the Asama Maru. During this voyage several members of the Legation staff were convinced that their luggage was being searched and Tom was concerned about losing his war diary. Tom decided to hide it in plain sight, with its placement marked on the shelf with a hair in its pages as a tell tale of any disturbance. Fortunately the diary was not disturbed and travelled on safely with Tom. July 12th at Laurenzo Marques (now called Maputo in Mozambique) they were exchanged and transferred to MS Gripsholm. The story of this voyage was written in a book "Exchange Ship" by Max Hill in 1942. Tom is mentioned on page 268 singing in the "Asama Maru Varieties".

1942 Assigned to Algiers
August 25th 1942 Tom and family finally arrived in Washington. In Washington Tom finally received word that he had passed his written exams for the Foreign service, was given his oral exams and passed. Tom was assigned to Ambassador Robert Murphy at the Office of the U.S. Political Advisor to General Eisenhower in the Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ), Algiers, Africa. Tom was delighted to find that Holbrook "Chappy" Chapman (from Bangkok) posted there as well. During this time Tom participated in the inspection of POW camps by the Swiss and was designated a "Special Naturalization Examiner." The duty of the Examiner was to naturalize Army soldiers that, during the hectic war time, were not actually American citizens. Naturalization ceremonies took place in many dangerous places - such as the Anzio beach head.

April, 1994 a daughter Elisabeth was born
Dorothy gave birth to Elisabeth in Oran North Africa. Betsy (our nickname for Elisabeth) was the first all-American baby born in North Africa after the landings. Being born in Oran made her a "pied-noir'' (black foot) in French. She was given her own dog-tags embossed with the words "HONORARY WAC NO 1."

1944 Caserta Italy
A little later it was decided to transfer Allied Force Headquarters from Algiers to Caserta, Italy, a few miles north of Naples and so began a road trip to Italy in the faithful Studebaker. In May of 1944 Tom was involved in the exchange of German prisoners in Algiers. In one of life coincidences the exchange ship was the MS Gripsholm - the same vessel that Tom and family were exchanged on several years prior. Many of the same crewman were still on the vessel and there was a grand reunion.

1945 Bronze Star
In August 1945 Tom was awarded the Army's Bronze Star for his Naturalization work on the Anzio beachhead.

1945 Meeting the Pope on the way to Salzburg Austria
About that time Tom received orders to transfer to Salzburg, Austria. At a stopover in Rome, Tom was invited to a all-priests luncheon by the American Monsignor whom Tom had met in Algiers. At the luncheon the Monsignor announced that the Pope wanted to meet with Tom the next morning. At the meeting the Pope emphasized his deep affection for the Austrian people. He hoped the U.S. would do everything possible to restore their freedom and peaceful existence. Later, Tom realized that the Pope knew that I would have to make a detailed report to the Department of State and, through Tom, could get his message through. At the Swiss border the Customs officer inspected the trunk of our car which contained a case of canned milk. He remarked that it was the first time he ever saw anyone bringing milk into Switzerland! Families were not permitted in Salzburg and Dorothy and Betsy stayed back in Bern Switzerland. Upon arriving in Salzburg Tom was almost immediately reassigned to Vienna. In another coincidence Tom met a POW in Austria that, many years later, became a noted eye surgeon and operated on Tom's eye in Boston Ma. Several months later Tom became eligible for home leave - two months back in the US. Off the family went in the Studebaker to Hamburg driving through Germany with cans of gasoline and cans of milk for Betsy in the trunk. On this Journey Betsy became ill from contamination in the thermos used to hold the milk. The car also broke down due to gasoline that been replaced with water by a thief. Somehow, Tom fixed the car though he had no mechanical ability at all. A doctor was called and the next day they were able to resume the trip to Hamburg for the Liberty ship back to New York.

1946 Quebec
At the end of this vacation Tom was told that he was to attend the Harvard Business School's three month Advanced Management program. In the meantime Tom was assigned to the Consulate in Quebec. The Studebaker had arrived back in the US and the family headed to Quebec. Dorothy and Betsy stayed in Worcester with family while Tom continued to Quebec to find lodgings for the family. The family, and furnishings from Vienna arrived in Quebec several days later and the family settled into an apartment near the Consulate. Duties in Quebec involved issuing visas and certifying citizenship for young couples coming to Quebec to adopt children via the "Le Creche" organization. While in Quebec Tom met the former Queen Sophia of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire who was living in a Roman Catholic convent.

1950 State Department
In 1950 Tom was relocated back to Washington and posted to the State Department to handle assignments of staff to several countries in Europe. During this time Tom began a long road to a college degree by taking classes at American University.

Sept, 1951 a son Stuart was born
One evening Tom noticed that Dorothy was knitting something. She casually announced that they were going to have another child. Stuart was born in the Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Silver Springs Maryland. Finally Tom was able to attend the Harvard Business School program. After graduation Tom was posted to Athens Greece to become the Second Director of the Joint Administrative Service (JAS) supporting the entire effort of the several agencies that were involved in restoring economic stability to Greece.

1952 Greece and the JAS
Travel to Greece was aboard the USS Constitution from New York. Dorothy could not find the foot locker containing the only milk that Stuart, who had a troublesome stomach, could tolerate and flatly refused to board. At the last minute the milk arrived - it had been sent to another ship in New Jersey - and the family boarded the ship. The JAS was directly or indirectly supported by AID - an economic and military assistance program designed to block the advance of Communism. Duties in Athens ranged from Personnel to Accounting to Payroll issues. Payroll was changed from Drachma's to checks. The payroll in Drachma's filled 2 large suitcase was difficult to secure, count and manage. Gasoline credit cards were introduced that could be used throughout the country rather than the one pump that had been used previously. "Official" office furniture previously shipped from the states was duplicated locally by local craftsmen. Tom performed inspection tours in areas where the U.S. was engaged in active projects to help restore the Greek economy and to preclude Communist infiltration and obstruction to the AID efforts. One outstanding example of this work was turning what had been a swampy area on the road north into a field of golden American wheat.

1956 State Department
After Athens Tom returned to the US and was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the State Department. His duties were to reorganize the General Service Office provided logistical support for the Department, any of its domestic offices, and all our diplomatic missions and consulates abroad. Tom reorganized the office into two major divisions and an Executive staff. Previously the units of the organization had operated semi-autonomously for a long period of time and did not readily take to being part of a centrally directed organization. However over time the reorganization worked and essentially the same broad system of doing business is still in use today. Dorothy had remained in Athens for several months while Tom was finding lodging for his family in the Washington area. A house in Arlington Virginia was purchased and the family returned to the US. While still in Athens Dorothy took the children to visit her father in Sweden. Dorothy had been born in Sweden to Grace and Ralph Forstedtt and came to the US as a young child with her mother Grace. This trip was the only time her children met their maternal Swedish grandfather. Tom was also instrumental in the design of the new State Department building and proposed that the offices and floors be arranged in a way that reflected the tenants rank within the department.

1957 Divorce
During this time Tom and his wife Dorothy divorced. On January 1, 1957 a time capsule for the new State Department was filled with a newspaper, coins and other pertinent documents by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Deputy Under Secretary Loy Henderson and Tom.

1958 Marriage to Ruth Fullerton
On a vacation to Maine to visit relatives Tom stopped in Portland to have lunch in a restaurant where he and his 7th grade sweetheart Ruth Fullerton used to have hamburgers. On a whim he telephoned her mother who gave him Ruth's number and they were married in 1958.

1961 Ambassador to Upper Volta
In 1961 Tom was confirmed as Ambassador to Upper Volta (now called Burkina-Faso) in Africa by President Kennedy. He oversaw smallpox and measles vaccination in the region, Upper Volta's recognition of the Taiwan, as well as U.S. support and interest in the region.

1963 Last appointment with President Kennedy
On November 21 1963, Tom and Ambassador Darlington were the last White House appointment before Kennedy's assassination the next day in Texas. Betsy spent a summer in Upper Volta with Tom and Ruth while attending college in Germany.

1965 Daughter Jane Arrives
Tom and Ruth adopted daughter Jane while in Upper Volta. That same year his daughter Betsy gave birth to Dean, Tom's first grandchild.

1966 Upper Volta to Newport RI
He left the post in Upper Volta on July 13, 1966 and For 2 years Tom served as the State Department Advisor to the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island.

1969 Retired from the Foreign Service
After the Naval War College Tom and his wife Ruth retired in Newport. Tom and Ruth very active in the local community and the Episcopal Church. Ruth served at the soup kitchen for many years.

1973 College Diploma
In 1973 Tom finally received the college diploma that had taken so long to complete. His son Stuart received his Associates degree that same year.

1983 Japan-America Society and the Black Ships Festival
Tom served as the President of Japan-America Society showing no hard feelings to the Japanese given his past experiences. This Festival celebrates Commodore Perry's first arrival, in black ships, in Shimoda Japan in 1854 that opened western trade after years of self-imposed isolation. Newport's sister city in Japan is Shimoda and in 1984 Tom was instrumental in getting the very first Black Ships Festival in Newport off the ground. The Festival has been an annual event in Newport ever since.

2001 Tom passes away
On December 29, 2001, Estes died of congestive heart failure in the Freedom Village Nursing Center in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida. He was aged 88 years, 340 days. He is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Other Notes
This wikipedia history was culled by his family from Tom's autobiography that he completed in 2002 for his family from his memory and his war diaries. Tom was interviewed in 1988 by Dwight Dickinson of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. A PDF transcript of this interview is online The Newport Daily News did a front page article on Tom on Feb 20 1992. An online copy of this article has not been found as the online archives only go back to 2001. The article should be available from Newport Library in microfiche form. Email Info@NewportLibraryRI.org for more information. Tom is survived by his Children Betsy, Stuart and Jane as well as grand children Dean, Mathew and Michael.